A confidential report into Celtic’s finances has revealed they are on course to announce revenue of £112million for the year ending June, 2023.
That would represent a record annual sum posted by any Scottish football club and shares in the Hoops have subsequently increased to £1.73 – almost seven times higher than the 25p Stuart Gibson paid for each of his 4.2m Rangers shares at the end of January . The report was commissioned by the club’s stockbrokers, Canaccord Genuity Ltd, a global investment bank focused on growth companies with operations worldwide. Their report has been distributed privately to clients. The company suggests that investing in shares in the Premiership champions promises to be a bargain because it believes their price has been undervalued by the markets.
Football finance expert David Low was Fergus McCann’s right-hand man when the US-based millionaire saved Celtic when they were just eight minutes from going to the wall 29 years ago. He studied Canaccord’s figures and, while they are clearly positive for Celtic, they won’t make good reading for their closest rivals in the Premiership title race and opponents in next month’s Scottish Cup semi-final.
The financial advantage Celtic have over Rangers is currently greater than it has ever been and Low claims that gulf is only going to become even wider in the foreseeable future. In 2022, Rangers reached the final of the Europa League (losing to Eintracht Frankfurt on penalties) then won the Scottish Cup before qualifying for the group stage of the Champions League. The Light Blues sold Nathan Patterson, Calvin Bassey and Joe Aribo for over £30m yet they still trail their city rivals commercially.
Low said: “First of all, the numbers posted by Celtic in their interim accounts were fantastic. Then the projections made by Cannacord for the remainder of the financial year are equally impressive. The turnover of £112m would be a new record, a total which has obviously been boosted by Champions League participation.
“Should they hold on to their nine-point lead in the Premiership, that looks like being matched or more likely bettered next season because winning the title will see them automatically qualify again and there is an extra group match in the new-look competition.
“The outlook for Celtic is compelling and gives the club the opportunity to put that money to good use in Europe. Canaccord are clearly impressed by the potential to grow that income, otherwise they wouldn’t have recommended their clients should buy shares, which they evidently believe are undervalued at today’s price. As to how that impacts the Scottish game, it means that Celtic are currently further ahead of Rangers financially than David Murray’s Rangers were ahead of the old board when Celtic almost went bust in 1994.”
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